Sparkle
by bunnyrave1
Summary: Lea had almost everything about the man memorized — except for his name. Coffee shop AU drabble. Rated T for language.


**A/N**: This was a prompt for day four of Akusai month on tumblr. I posted it on my personal tumblr and am cross-posting it here.

* * *

Lea had almost everything about the man memorized — except for his name. He watched with baited breath as he caught sight of the familiar glob of messy blue hair pass outside of the café's window.

Lea had the routine nailed down at this point. Every Tuesday and Thursday it was the same. The blue-haired man would approach the counter and ask Lea for a sparkling cider. Lea would turn around and try to fill his order without fucking up. The man would calmly take his drink, set up his brick laptop in the corner, and type away for two or three hours.

He loved Tuesdays and Thursdays the most.

"Oh _fuck me_." Lea whispered to himself as the man entered the cafe and came towards Lea. Today he had his dark blue hair pulled into a messy ponytail and was wearing a white suit. His green eyes just barely peeked out from beneath his bangs and Lea caught a whiff of peppermint as he approached the counter.

"I'd like the usual, please." he said softly, pushing some of his hair out of his eyes. Lea felt a lump form in his throat.

"S-sure thing." Lea stammered, shoving his hands in his pockets so the man wouldn't see how badly they were shaking. He bent down and started rifling through the box where the syrups were kept, trying unsuccessfully steady his hands.

"_A suit, goddamn, why did he have to show up in a suit?_" Lea thought to himself as he mechanically went through the motions of preparing the sparkling cider. "_How the hell am I gonna focus to_—Fucking shit!" Lea yelled as cider exploded all over his hands. A soft laugh tinkled through the air, and Lea felt the lump in his throat return.

"It's gonna be a minute, sorry!" Lea yelled over his shoulder, not daring to look the man in the face. He slowly went through the process of making the cider again, taking extra care to keep his hands steady. When he turned around to give the man his drink, his heart almost stopped.

_He was gone!_

Lea bit down on his lip, slightly drawing blood. The man had left and he wasn't going to return. Work would become boring again and he never even got his name—

_Tack. Tack. Tack._

The slow sound of the keyboard was like a gift from the heavens. Lea felt his heart soar as he scanned his eyes towards the noise and saw the blue-haired man holed up in a corner by the fireplace. Lea had to restrain himself from jumping over the counter and rushing to the man's table. He decided to quietly approach the man and see if he could catch a glimpse of what he was writing.

He slid against the walls of the café, trying to move as stealthily as possible. The man's table was covered in books about astronomy and star charts. A quick look at his computer screen revealed that he was writing a paper; he hadn't gotten very far and Lea could faintly make out a name in the upper left corner. Started with an I—

"Is that for me?" the man asked, without even turning around.

Lea's hand jerked back and a bit of cider sloshed onto the man's head. "S-sorry." Lea said, setting down the drink so he wouldn't make any more stupid mistakes.

"It's okay." the man laughed. "It adds some excitement to my evening."

"Yeah I bet." Lea said, glancing over all the books. "You a student at the university?"

"Yep, I'm majoring in astronomy if you couldn't guess. I love it to death but writing papers is never fun."

"I can imagine." Lea pulled out one of the chairs from the table and sat on it backwards. "So what's with the suit?"

The man flushed pink and Lea mentally kicked himself. "_Well great, now he's embarrassed. Good going."_

I gave my first lecture today." the man said, tugging a small strand of blue that was hanging off to his side. "I wanted to look professional."

"I thought you were a student."

"Graduate student, actually. I didn't think to change after class; I was too focused on getting my cider. "

Lea chuckled. "My drinks are that good, huh?"

"Well, yes. The café on campus is horrid, they serve watered-down shit that they _claim _is coffee, but you can barely taste anything. Plus they don't serve cider year-round." the main sniffed. He looked up at Lea. "You know, I've been coming in here for the past three months and I don't think I ever learned your name."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Lea said. "My name is —"

"Lea!" a gruff voice shouted from the back of the café. Lea turned around and saw his manager behind the counter, glaring at him. "You're still on the clock! Stop socializing with the customers!"

Lea rolled his eyes and turned around. "My charming manager."

The man laughed. "You should probably go, Lea. I don't want to get you fired."

Lea beamed. He liked the way that his name sounded when the man said it. "Yeah I probably should. It was nice to finally met you, um…"

"Isa." the man said, extending his right hand. "Got it memorized?"


End file.
